I happy to announce that I’ve been selected as one of the 21 artists that will be teaching in the Spring 2015 Edition of the 21 Secrets Art Journaling Workshop! 21 Secrets is a wonderful online site for classes created by Hali Karla and Connie Hozvicka at Dirty Footprints Studio.

I’ll be teaching a a new online class title “Bound to Journal.” My journaling is a conglomeration of intentional art, random thoughts, ideas in work and the overflowing debris of my brain. In this workshop, I’ll take you through my process from end-to-end. We’ll start by taking a tour through one or two of my journals and my journaling bag. Next, I’ll teach you how to bind a twelve-page folio journal which when completed, can be bound into a larger book. I’ll focus on journaling with some materials that are typically used for creating urban art.

I often incorporate photographs in my journals so I’ll demonstrate some simple techniques for taking control of the camera in your phone and taking great photos will allow you to document events and create distressed or distorted images. Finally, we’ll tie the techniques I’ve show you together will create a series of rich pages that will speak to who you are.

I’ve been teaching the Coptic stitch a lot lately and I’ve been thinking about how to teach it better. When it comes time to teach the stitch during the class everybody gathers around to watch and that’s where the problem is. Everything is too small. with a half-dozed or more people gathered around looking over my shoulder it’s hard to see what’s going on. I’ve tried doing things like sewing with two different colored threads but at the end of the day, nobody can get close enough to see what’s going on during the demo.

I’ve decided to scale up and build a demo rig so everybody can see what’s happening during the demo. I just started working on it today and I hope to have it done soon but here’s what I’ve got so far, I hope to have it done by the end of the week.

Art Unraveled has been going on for the past week or so and it’s been a great event. This past Saturday the Shopping Extravaganza took place and a wide variety of artists and vendors where there selling everything from handmade journals to stencils. Classes start late on Saturday so everyone has plenty of time to shop and I had just enough time to check everything out before teaching my class, “Dug from the Ruins: A Polymer Clay Art Journal”.

Today, I taught my class titled “Worn by Time: A Coptic Bound Art Journal.” In this class, students use Milk Paint to transform ordinary oak boards into a 3″ x 5″ journal. The morning was spent drilling holes for the binding, building up layers of color using Milk Paint and the distressing the surface to reveal those layers and simulate the look of wear and age. For many, the Coptic Sewing is hard to learn so the rest of the day was reserved for sewing demonstrations and hands on help with the binding.

Students finished their books by setting a small image into a bezel and attaching that to the cover and then installing a simple closure that was fabricated from brass. It was a great group of students and their books turned out exceptionally well. I hope to see them again in the future at other events.

A student distresses the covers of their journal in the “Worn By Time” class.

Art Unraveled kicks off in Phoenix tonight with a meet the artist event. If you haven’t attended, Art Unraveled is a week long art event that features classes taught by internationally known artists. There are over 125 workshops that cover a broad range of media like painting, book making, jewelry making, metal work, journaling, fiber/fabric arts, sculpting and assemblage.

I’ll be teaching three classes at Art Unraveled this year, Dug from the Ruins, a journal created from polymer clay; Work by Time, a coptic bound art journal with wood covers and the Inlaid Wood journal wood covers with small circular inlay.

It’s graduation time again and a family friend, someone we’ve know since he was a wee tot has managed to survive the elementary school system and go over the wall. He’s a talented drummer and over the past couple of years he’s started to journal sporadically with a goal of doing it regularly. I thought it might be nice to bind a journal for him; maybe he’ll go to it more regularly if it’s more meaningful than an off the shelf sketchbook.

I was unexpectedly contacted by the folks responsible for the Art and Soul Mixed Media Retreats about a month ago. I’m happy to announce that I’ve accepted their invitation and I’ll be teaching at the Portland event in 2015. I’ve designed three new classes for the event and I hope that they’ll appeal to a large cross section of people who are interested in creating their own personalized art journals. I’m going to be focusing on wood books during this retreat because I think the fit into the ethos of the Pacific Northwest.

I’m calling the first book the Wood Spellbook and it features the all seeing eye of art in the center of the front cover. It features a book block sewn to a leather spine and covers fabricated for red oak and aged with some painting techniques. This will be a little larger than I usually teach, 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″but I think the size makes the design work and I’ll be teaching students how to paint the medallion the encircles the eye.

The Book of Spells

Book two is a little smaller, 4″ x 6″ and I’m calling it the Shrine book. The students will be working with Walnut and carving out a recess that you can build a tiny shrine in. The recess will have room for small photos, milagros, charms or other objects that hold magic or memories for the students. I’m really not satisfied with the size f the shrine on the sample I created so look for an updated picture in the next week or two, I’ll probably enlarge the shrine. We’ll finish up by using some easy painting techniques to add a nice patina to the covers.

The Shrine Book

The third class I’ve named Mr. Chunky and I’ve included it because I’m constantly asked about teaching a Coptic stitch. The thing about the coptic stitch, at least in my view is that because it’s an exposed spine sewing it’s meant to be “featured” as an integral part of the book. To that end, I’ve made Mr. Chunky thick, twelve signatures worth. That translated to a book block about two inches thick and it allows the sewing to be a dominant part of the project. I’ll be teaching a locking coptic stitch which creates a nice visual element and adds some sturdiness as well.

Mr. Chunky

If you’re interested in seeing more photographs of the projects, check them out on the Workshops page.